Intel Says Brain Implants Could Control Computers By 2020 314
Lucas123 writes "Scientists at Intel are working on developing sensors that would be implanted in a person's head in order to harness brain waves that could then be used to control computers, televisions, cell phones and other electronic equipment. Intel has already used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) machines to determine that blood flow changes in specific areas of the brain based on what word or image someone is thinking of. People tend to show the same brain patterns for similar thoughts. 'Eventually people may be willing to be more committed ... to brain implants. Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts.' said Intel research scientist Dean Pomerleau."
Oh well. (Score:1, Informative)
Good thing the world is ending in 2012
Quick, someone high five me! (Score:5, Informative)
First Lasers, and soon brain implants! Today is full of win! Its the effin Future!
Re:Last Thing I Want (Score:3, Informative)
Fortunately, feeding input directly into the brain is more difficult that reading output from it.
Not really. It's easily (ish) to stimulate a neuron externally using optical stimulation, but to read that state of that cell currently requires either implanting an electrode into the cell (generally shortens the lifespanof the cell to a few hours/minutes), or stimulating the cell to grow an axon onto a suitable biocompatable electrode (some research in this direction, no reliable results as of yet).
Re:Let me know when... (Score:4, Informative)
You are out of luck. I would suggest leaving Mom's basement and getting a little sun and perhaps actually talking to some girls. You'll get results faster that way. Trust me; it works. It does require the Social Interaction plugin for your Operating System, but that is freely available and has been for millennia.
Fascinating stuff... (Score:5, Informative)
I recently heard an NPR article about this kind of thing.
Using real time MRI, someone could be presented with flashcards of common objects (screwdriver, igloo, flower, etc). When they thought about those objects, certain areas of the brain lit up.
The scientists said that when you think of a screwdriver, there isn't a single "screwdriver" area that lights up. Instead, you think of how it looks, what it feels like in your hand, what it's used for. You might think of construction workers, or your favorite screwdriver in your workbench at home. So lots of areas in the brain "light up".
What's amazing to me is that it appeared to be the SAME AREAS for DIFFERENT people.
As an example of this, the NPR production assistant (who was just visiting and helping with the interview) got hooked up to the MRI and was shown the flashcards. The computer, by looking at her brain, successfully guessed 10 out of 10. Even though the computer "learned" from someone else!
I suppose someone who'd never seen a screwdriver before wouldn't have the same sort of response, so it's probably limited to people with the same cultural backgrounds.
Pretty neat stuff.
Ob link to XKCD (Score:3, Informative)
http://xkcd.com/644/ [xkcd.com]
Holes In Your Head (Score:4, Informative)
Do you really want someone drilling holes in your head and shoving wires into it just so you don't have to type and use a mouse? Do you have any idea how many of these things you'll need shoved through your skull to be able to fore go just those two activities? (Hundreds) Do you realize that implants hasten neuron death and as they die you'll need to associated electrodes replaced? And just who makes enough money to pay for undergoing dozens (at least!) of invasive implantation surgeries requiring real time CT or MR imaging? You insurance damn sure won't pay for it. And don't give me that "for the disabled" crap -- they don't get the expensive stuff either.
You don't need implants for brain "waves". Implants are better suited for detecting neural firing patterns on a much smaller scale. But you can get the job done with "waves" (EEG) without having to trephan yourself.
There are now EEG systems that have the premap on the electrode, making impedance issues irrelevant and signal balancing automatic. There are EEG analysis packages that use continuous wavelet analysis to do time/frequency analysis similar to the "thousands of channels" analysis radio-astronomers enjoy. Between these two, and 'training' a system to recognize a particular person's EEG patterns well enough to control a device like a computer, the other EEG related problems like skin potentials, EMG and EKG artifact become non-issues. And as far as localization, I can reliably localize 40 to 50 signals simultaneously with this technology using a high density (256 or more) electrode EEG.
This technology exists now. The computing power necessary to operate in as a control system in real time is beyond most people's ability to purchase. So if the nice folks from Intel will kindly put down the cranial drill and get back to what they're good at, maybe by 2020 we can have the sort of computing power sitting on everyone's desk if not sitting in a handheld device in their pocket.
And get away from that fMRI. I don't care what you think you saw. I saw the fMRI "brain scan" of the dead salmon showing it lighting up as it recognized a human emotion from a photo it had been shown before (but while still dead).
Re:Holes In Your Head (Score:3, Informative)
Implanting a single input at an early enough stage will produce a "line in" effect that may feel either instinctual or actually produce cognizance depending on the other end of the system.
Your brain will simply assume a complex network on the other end of the "input".
The brain "grows" the ability to use our current senses no reason this would be any different.
The other direction will be more difficult (and probably desired by more people) but the "line in" functionality will be the real game changer.
Re:But Unfortunately... (Score:2, Informative)
the borg are a badly thought out sci-fi plot device, nothing more.
If a group of people got together and made it possible to experience everything everyone in the group heard/thought/felt, they would be a democracy where the majority always rules. your views and values would not change, they would be shared throughout the group. If a group of humans formed a borg collective they would maintain their humanity, and probably even hold each other to a higher standard through peer pressure.
Star trek Borg are not a collective, they are a subservient dictatorship.